Aide crashed under the influence

Ashley Turton, a former Democratic aide whose death last month shocked friends and colleagues on Capitol Hill, was under the influence of alcohol when she crashed her car into the family garage early on the morning of Jan. 10, an autopsy found.

According to a statement released Friday by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for the District of Columbia, Turton died from the “inhalation of products of combustion and thermal burns” caused by a fire after her car crashed into the garage of the Turton’s Capitol Hill home.

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Turton, a mother of three, was also under the influence of alcohol, the medical examiner ruled. Turton was in a state of “acute alcohol intoxication,” the medical examiner stated.

Dan Turton is the White House’s deputy director of legislative affairs for the House. Ashley Turton worked as an aide to former Rep. Dick Gephardt (D-Mo.) and then as chief of staff to Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.). At the time of her death, she was a lobbyist for Progress Energy, a North Carolina-based utility company that was about to merge with another utility company. The couple had three young children.

Investigators from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had joined with D.C. officials in trying to determine the cause of the accident.